‘Fixed Sounds’ : from Dziga Vertov to Public Enemy.

in MCD#70 - 2013

The composer and historian of Musique Concrète in France, Michel Chion introduced the concept of « fixed sounds ». This term specifically defines electroacoustic music as made concretely through the sound itself, without going through the stage of score writing. The sound thus becomes a standalone sound object fixed onto a recording medium, and it only exists in this form. However, the definition can also be applied outside of the realm of concrete music, and even well before its invention by Pierre Schaeffer into the fold of the early French Radio waves…